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Also depends if hes willing to take a 1 year deal to come to a non-contender. Though, I find it hard to believe you will find a single team outside of the top 10 draft slots willing to lose a first round pick over a 1 year deal.

Another question I have is with his market drying up this winter how many teams would be vying for him at the trade deadline? That being especially true if he has a down year or gets hurt. Are the Cubs at that point really going to get anything more valuable than the 2nd round pick and more importantly the pool money to work from? Also have to figure if he does sign a one year deal they will make sure there are terms in the contract barring the Cubs from making him the qualifying offer. I am more afraid of signing him for the 1 yr (assuming he would take that contract) with intentions on flipping him and at the end being stuck losing him after one season for nothing. He is not the impact talent that is going to put the team over the top so I am OK with him signing elsewhere and not with the Cubs.

French writer Alexis de Tocqueville warned about when visiting this fledgling democracy in the early 19th century – that this "American republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."

Gotta say this Upton deal is disappointing. It's dramatically less than Starlin Castro and dramatically less than what they got from Seattle. I was willing to do Vizcaino and Baez personally. I understand that Delgado is basically an MLB pitcher already, and that matters... but the rest of that package is so underwhelming. I guess 3B positional scarcity has really become a big deal.

Now you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet: I will end you.

Lots of options for that pen spot with Bowden- Wade- Lewis - Takahashi among others. The order of the rotation obviously is a question but i really don't care at this point. When everybody is healthy that's the group we'll see most likely. I am also thinking Wood is out of options right ? Did i leave anybody out ?

Arizona's return boils down to this: One year of Martin Prado, six years of a fifth starter in Randall Delgado, two fringy prospects, and one non-prospect. If that sounds like a good deal to you, I have some beachfront property in Phoenix to sell you.

Prado is a versatile player who'll probably be Arizona's full-time third baseman, solving a need for the club in 2013 but at an exorbitant cost, since he's a free agent after the 2013 season. He's an above-average defender at third who generates most of his offensive value with high contact rates; when he hits .300, which he's done three times in the last four seasons, he's potentially a three- to four-win player at third base. (His WAR figures overstate his value somewhat with inflated defensive figures in left field.) He doesn't walk much or have power, nor is that likely to change given his age -- he might creep up closer to 20 homers playing 90 games a year in Chase Field and Coors -- so this is a bet that he'll keep making contact and fill the void at third. That's enough to offset the loss of Upton's bat and glove for one season.

Randall Delgado's ceiling might be as a 4th or 5th starter.
Delgado is a fastball/changeup guy in search of an average breaking ball, without success so far, surviving by changing speeds and by keeping the two-seamer down enough to generate groundballs; if he were to bump up his control by a grade or two, he's got a chance to be league-average in some years, but the lack of an average curveball or slider will make it hard for him to miss enough bats. He reminds me in some ways of Pat Corbin, another changeup guy who's serviceable in the back of the rotation but who looked dynamite out of the pen in brief stints for Arizona in 2012. (You can be very good in a relief role with just two pitches.)

Nick Ahmed was the 9th-best prospect in Atlanta's system, a good defensive shortstop with a plus-plus arm but very little offensive upside; he loads his hands very deep, leading to a long swing, and doesn't have the plate discipline to allow him to compensate.

Zeke Spruill was 7th on my Atlanta rankings, with a low-90s fastball that has some tailing life, keeping the ball down but not enough to make him a true groundball guy; he's got an average slider in the 82-84 mph range and a hard changeup (almost split-like) in the 85-87 range that was very effective against left-handed hitters this year, giving him no platoon split at all in Class AA. He's very slight of build and tends to sling the ball a little from a low 3/4 slot, so I don't know how durable he is. Add in the fact that he doesn't miss a lot of bats with three average pitches and it doesn't bode well for him to be more than a back-end starter.

After reading Keith Law's break down (a portion of the article is listed above if not allowed just delete it) I am pretty disappointed the Cubs weren't given a better shot at landing him. I think its going to take a significant contract to keep Prado off the FA market next season. His agent has to know that he has the Diamondbacks over a barrel in this situation. No chance can they let him hit the FA market after being the marquis name in the Upton trade. Just a really bad trade for Arizona.

After reading Keith Law's break down (a portion of the article is listed above if not allowed just delete it) I am pretty disappointed the Cubs weren't given a better shot at landing him. I think its going to take a significant contract to keep Prado off the FA market next season. His agent has to know that he has the Diamondbacks over a barrel in this situation. No chance can they let him hit the FA market after being the marquis name in the Upton trade. Just a really bad trade for Arizona.

The problem is that Tower's demands were really erratic, demanding a high return from some teams and a lesser returns for others. The Cubs don't have a package similar to what Seattle or Atlanta offered even though they might have been able to give up talent that would be greater than what Arizona got from Atlanta.